Friday, 11 August 2017

Having mulled things over I decided the Hessians would benefit from more space to form up and this would look better as a demonstration game. It also allows the Hessians a hill on which to place their artillery to provide support or to bombard the fort.

I have also "officially" added the ford just west of the bridge, to provide a second crossing point for the Hessians. As the river now has three crossing points I expect I'll not allow it to be forded elsewhere.

The map has been drawn using MS Powerpoint, and lots of little tricks with bevel, shadow and glow effects.

As I can't set up the whole battle at home, I have started to fine tune each area of the battlefield in isolation. First up is Hill's Ford and Wotiff's Bend itself.

Here, the Connecticut State Levies are defending the crossing and settlement from the first wave of British attackers - Three battalions of light infantry, two of grenadiers, part of the 16th LD and a section of light artillery.

Tuesday, 8 August 2017

I am back from the seaside and The Other Partizan is just around the corner, so it is time to start planning my game. This time it will still be AWI, but a hypothetical scenario to allow me to fit lots of colourful toys on the table. The rough map for the 10' x 6' battle is shown below:

Wotiff's Bend is a small settlement nestled in the crook of the Cowley River, north of New York. The area forms the western flank of Washington's army and is currently garrisoned by two brigades of militia and a continental brigade. Continental artillery is housed in a fort atop the nearby Ford's Hill with fields of fire covering the two river crossings: a bridge close to Farmer's Mill and a ford north-west of the village. A second continental brigade may appear later on.

The Crown army is moving to attack in the hope of turning Washington's flank. A Division of Hessians will advance towards the bridge and mill, while a flanking force including British light and grenadier companies has marched around to the west and will approach the ford.

The scenario, while fictional, features aspects of a number of real AWI battles including White Plains/Chatterton's Hill, Brandywine/Chadd's Ford, Hubbardton and Bound Brook.

I won't be able to set this up before the show as it is larger than my usual table, but I'm sure it will all go together OK! :-)

Wednesday, 26 July 2017

Just a heads-up that things will be quiet during my brief summer holidays. I'll be putting on a game at Partizan in Newark on 20th August so between now and the will be some planning and scenario testing but probably no new painting until the after the show.

Tuesday, 25 July 2017

This is the new fort, sat atop my Breed's Hill model. I'm pleased with how this has turned out, given that it was just an experiment to try some techniques.

The walls are foamcore covered in coffee stirrers and matchsticks. Earth bank has a base of foamcore buttresses and papier-mâché with air dry clay over the top then finished with sand. Barbecue skewer tips provide the spiky bits :-)

Internal duck boards are scribed rectangles of balsa with a few chopped up coffee stirrers.

Painting started with brown fence paint followed by Army Painter strong tone from the tin. This sealed everything thoroughly. Then I drybrushed with various brown and grey craft paints. Final step was static grass.

Sunday, 23 July 2017

This week I have completed the following unit which I will probably field as the 19th Continental Regiment for the 1776 campaign around New York.

I've also been building a small fort. It's not finished yet but I'm sure you get the idea. This model has the same footprint as my Breed's Hill redoubt so can sit atop the same hill in a slightly more imposing way. I'll post more pictures when it is properly finished.

Sunday, 16 July 2017

I forgot to add these to the blog last week. The completed 3rd NY for the 1776 battles. The flag is conjectural, the beaver was an emblem used by NY militia early in the war. I may or may not retain it. The well known 3rd NY flag is for 1777 after the unit was disbanded and re-raised from scratch.

These are Foundry figures who previously did service in my original British Legion infantry unit. Now that unit has been replaced I thought I'd repainted some of the chaps to give my some singly-based continental troops to act as skirmishers or to garrison buildings, forts, and so on. So it was out with the green faced black jackets and in with blue and brown jackets. For the majority I went for the widespread blue with red facings but I also did a half-dozen in light brown with pale blue facings.

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About Me

Member of the Newark Irregulars wargaming club since 1996, gaming since about 1984. I co-wrote the WAB supplement "The Age of Arthur" with my good friend James Morris. I'm interested in most wargaming periods but my favourites are AWI and Grand-tactical Napoleonics.
1 wife, 2 daughters, 2 guinea pigs.